In the painting industry, it is necessary to tack off a vehicle body prior to painting of the vehicle body. Tacking off generally refers to the process of passing a vehicle body through an assembly, including a plurality of feather dusters. The feather dusters generally comprise a plurality of feathers, such as ostrich feathers, mounted on a rotatable hub. As the vehicle body passes through the assembly, the rotating feathers contact the vehicle body surface. The wiping action of the feathers against the vehicle body creates an electrostatic charge on the feathers. The charged feathers attract dust from the vehicle body. A shroud assembly is mounted over the feather dusters. Within the shroud assembly is an ionic discharge unit which continually discharges the feathers, thereby releasing the dust. A vacuum assembly within the shroud assembly removes the dust from within the shroud assembly.
Problems arise when the vehicle bodies present nonplanar surfaces and depressions of varying widths. Specifically, vehicles bodies, such as flat-bed truck bodies, have planar surfaces on the hood and roof of the cab, but further include recessed portions of decreased width within the cargo-carrying area of the body. Complex and expensive machines have been devised which can tack off the hood and roof of the cab with one duster while using alternative means for tacking off the bed of the cargo-carrying area.
The present invention provides a simplified and mush less expensive means for tacking off recessed areas of different widths with a single machine.